The members of the Maruti Suzuki Workers’ Union (MSWU) provisional committee members held meetings in Laxman Vihar, Ashok Vihar and Rajiv Nagar, which are mostly inhabited by automobile workers. The members interacted with the residents about the hardships being faced by them and their families.

Later, they held a meeting with the representatives of various trade unions and workers’ unions and sought their support for the January 31 demonstration in Delhi.

The MSWU provisional committee, which has been spearheading the agitation, claimed that the padayatra has received tremendous support across towns and village, where not only workers and the unemployed but also peasants and students attested to the legitimacy of their demands. While in Digal village, locals opened the senior secondary school for them to stay overnight, workers of the Jal Board welcomed them in Jhajjar. The local panchayat also welcomed them in Dadri Toi village. The foot-marchers exchanged their experiences of struggle and hope for a transformation of the present anti-worker and anti-people system at various meetings.

The foot-marchers are scheduled to take part in a programme organised by student organisations at Jawaharlal Nehru University in solidarity with the padayatra. The padayatra will culminate on January 31 in a day-long protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar. The committee has made an appeal to all workers, trade unions, student-youth and women’s organisations and mass and democratic organisations to join them and spread the struggle.